I disagree. The HEI helpline was also set up to assist staff administering
Student Loans as well. Given that staff such as myself, adminster hardship
loans (as well as the plethora of other funds), using the HEI helpline to
identify if a student has taken out their whole entitlement is sometimes
essential. Especially to stop filling in an application form unneccessarily.
If the SLC and LEAs were better at informing students that they had
reassessed them so that they entitled to further funds pertaining to their
main loan, I would be less disgrantled at this suggestion. The fact is that
there are LEAs out there that don't bother sending out reassessment
notifications, especially when they are for small amounts.

For the sake of getting a confirmation that a student has taken out there
whole loan, it saves staff like myself from having to complete 2 forms when
the first one is rejected because the student didn't take out their whole
loan by £20.00. Also the student gets to stay on their course rather than
giving up through lack of funds, all for the want of phoning the HEI
helpline.

The second point I wish to make is, I have better things to do with my time
than spend 20 to 30 minutes on the student line finding out this
information, when it takes 2 or 3 on HEI line.

James
University of Brighton

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Norris [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 12 March, 2001 4:21 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: Contacting the SLC
> 
> Louise
> 
> For once I'm with the SLC on this one.
> 
> The reasons they cite are those I recall myself and
> colleagues who deal with the term dates/fees side of things
> using at the time.
> 
> Paul
> 
> On Mon, 12 Mar 2001 16:05:10 +0000 Louise O'Sullivan
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> > I have just been looking at the March 2001 issue of the Student Support
> > Update and was surprised by the message from the SLC as regards
> contacting
> > them.
> >
> > If you look on page 5 (this is available on the DfEE website if you
> don't
> > have a copy), there is a section entitled 'A message from SLC's HEI
> > helpline' which says:
> >
> > WE ARE STILL receiving a number of calls from students as well as HEIs
> > phoning on behalf of students.Whilst we understand you may prefer to
> ring
> > the HEI Helplines,the helpline was originally set up at the request of
> HEIs
> > to provide dedicated phone lines dealing specifically with
> administrative
> > queries (such as Course Database returns and queries,Tuition Fee
> Enquiries
> > and stationery).The freephone Student Helpline has been set up to
> provide a
> > dedicated information helpline for all student enquiries. We would
> > appreciate your help in ensuring that where a query relates to a
> > student,the Student Helpline is used. The exception to this would be if
> it
> > were a genuine emergency or a problem that cannot be resolved by the
> > Student Helpline.
> >
> > ________________________________
> >
> > I would be interested to hear your reactions to the above.  Whilst I
> > understand that the SLC may want to streamline the type of phone calls
> they
> > receive etc, it seems rather odd to me that HEI's will need to ring the
> > already overburdened student number and have to be dealt with through
> that.
> > The number of complaints we get from students who say they can't get
> > through/ get cut off etc is quite high and for us to have to join that
> > process (and also therefore increase the traffic on that number) seems
> > strange.
> >
> > You may also be interested to learn that in that same note it says that
> the
> > HEI contact number is 0845 702 3316 - which I presume is meant to inform
> us
> > that the 0345 number is not to be used anymore at all - but it doesn't
> > actually tell you this is a change of number etc and so I presume we are
> > meant to guess.
> >
> > I would also be interested to hear from people who were working in this
> > area when the phone line was introduced, was that why you understood
> that
> > the helpline was set up?  I have spoken to colleagues who have dealt
> with
> > this area for longer than me and they have never heard that before.
> >
> > I would be interested to hear comments from people.
> >
> > Louise
> >
> > Louise O'Sullivan
> > Brunel University, UK
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
> 
> ----------------------
> Paul Norris, Planning Support Office
> Planning, Resource Allocation, Student Records and Statistics
> University of Bristol
> [log in to unmask]